Beginning

Josiah Renews the Covenant

23 Then the king summoned all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. ² The king went up to the House of the Lord, and every man of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets and all the people from the least to the greatest, went with him. In their hearing he read all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the House of the Lord.

³ Then the king stood before the pillar and made a covenant in the presence of the Lord to follow the Lord, to keep his commandments, his testimony, and his statutes with all his heart, and with all his soul to uphold the words of this covenant, which were written in this book.

Then all the people affirmed this covenant.

Josiah Cleanses the Land

⁴ Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the lower-ranking priests, and the gatekeepers that they should remove from the temple of the Lord all the articles which had been made for Baal, for Asherah, and for the whole army of the heavens.^[a] He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley, and he took the ashes to Bethel. ⁵ He removed the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense at the high places^[b] in the cities of Judah and in the area around Jerusalem, those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to the whole army of the heavens. ⁶ He took the Asherah pole from the House of the Lord to the Kidron Valley, outside of Jerusalem. He burned it there. He crushed it to dust and scattered the dust on the graves of the common people. ⁷ He tore down the houses of the male shrine prostitutes, which were in the House of the Lord, where women were weaving hangings for Asherah.

⁸ Then he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had been burning incense, from Gibeah to Beersheba. He tore down the high places by the gates, which were at the entrance to the Gate of Joshua, who was the official over the city. This gate was to the left of the main gate to the city. ⁹ The priests from the high places could not go up to the Lord’s altar in Jerusalem, but they were allowed to eat unleavened bread in the midst of their brothers.

¹⁰ He defiled Tophet, which was in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, so that no one could make his son or daughter pass through the fire for Molek. ¹¹ He removed the horses, which the kings of Judah had set up for the sun, from the entrance to the Lord’s house. They were near the office of Nathan Melek, the high official, which was in the temple courtyard. Then he burned the chariots of the sun.

¹² The king tore down the altars that were on the roof of the chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courtyards of the House of the Lord. He smashed them and threw the dust into the Kidron Valley. ¹³ The king defiled the high places which were east of Jerusalem on the south end of the Mount of Corruption,^[c] which Solomon king of Israel had made for Ashtarte, the detestable goddess of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh, the detestable god of Moab, and for Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. ¹⁴ He smashed the sacred memorial stones to bits, and he cut down the Asherah poles. Then he filled their sites with human bones.

¹⁵ Even the altar which was in Bethel, the high place which Jeroboam son of Nebat had made, which caused Israel to sin—he pulled down even that altar and its high place. Then he burned the high place. He ground the Asherah pole to powder and burned it.

¹⁶ Then Josiah turned and saw the graves that were there on the hill. He sent men and took the bones from the graves and burned them on the altar. So he defiled it in fulfillment of the word of the Lord, which the man of God ⎣proclaimed, when Jeroboam stood by the altar at the feast.

Then he turned and raised his eyes to the tomb of the man of God⎦ who proclaimed these things,^{[d] 17} and he asked, “What is that gravestone which I see over there?”

The men of the city told him, “It is the grave of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you are doing against the altar of Bethel.”

¹⁸ Then he said, “Leave him alone. Let no one disturb his bones.” So they spared his bones along with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria. ¹⁹ Josiah removed all the shrines of the high places which the kings of Israel had made in the cities of Samaria, which provoked the Lord^[e] to anger. He did to them just as he did in Bethel. ²⁰ On the altars he slaughtered all the priests of the high places who were present there, and he burned human bones on the altars. Then he went back to Jerusalem.

Josiah Celebrates the Passover

²¹ Then the king commanded all the people, “Observe the Passover to the Lord your God just as it is written in the Book of the Covenant.” ²² For they had not observed a Passover like this during the days of the judges who led Israel or during the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. ²³ But in King Josiah’s eighteenth year, this Passover to the Lord was observed in Jerusalem. ²⁴ Josiah destroyed^[f] the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the filthy idols, and all the detestable idols which were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, in order to comply with the words of the law, which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the House of the Lord.

Summary

²⁵ Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, according to all the Law of Moses, and after him no one like him arose. ²⁶ But even so, the Lord did not turn from his great wrath which burned against Judah because of all the offenses with which Manasseh had provoked him. ²⁷ So the Lord said, “I will also remove Judah from my presence just as I removed Israel. I will reject Jerusalem, the city I chose, and the house about which I said, ‘My Name will be there.’”

Josiah’s Death

²⁸ As for the rest of Josiah’s acts and everything he did, are they not written in the annals of the kings of Judah?

²⁹ In his days, Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, went to join the king of Assyria for war at the Euphrates River.^[g] King Josiah went to meet Neco in battle, but Neco killed King Josiah at Megiddo when he faced him. ³⁰ His servants transported his body from Megiddo to Jerusalem in a chariot, and they buried him in his own tomb. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and anointed him. They made him king in his father’s place.

Jehoahaz Son of Josiah, King of Judah

³¹ Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for three months. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. ³² He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, like all that his fathers had done.

³³ Pharoah Neco imprisoned him in Riblah, in the land of Hamath, so that he could not rule as king in Jerusalem. Neco levied tribute on the land of one hundred talents^[h] of silver and one talent^[i] of gold. ³⁴ Then Pharaoh Neco set up Eliakim son of Josiah as king in place of his father Josiah. But he changed his name to Jehoiakim. Then he took Jehoahaz to Egypt, and Jehoahaz died there.

Jehoiakim Son of Josiah, King of Judah

³⁵ Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to provide the money, as demanded by Pharaoh. From each man according to his worth, he exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land to give it to Pharaoh Neco.

³⁶ Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he ruled for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah from Ramah. ³⁷ He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just like everything that his fathers had done.

Judgment for Judah

24 In the days of Jehoiakim, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the land, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years, but he then rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar again.

² Then the Lord sent bands of Chaldeans, bands of Arameans, bands of Moabites, and bands of Ammonite raiders against Jehoiakim. He sent them into Judah to destroy them according to the word of the Lord, which he had spoken through his servants the prophets. ³ Surely this happened at the Lord’s command to remove them from his presence because of all the sins Manasseh had committed, ⁴ as well as the innocent blood he had shed. He filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord was not willing to forgive.

⁵ As for the rest of Jehoiakim’s deeds and everything he did, are they not written in the annals of the kings of Judah? ⁶ Jehoiakim rested with his fathers. Then his son Jehoiachin became king in his place.

⁷ The king of Egypt did not march out from his land again because the king of Babylon had seized everything that had belonged to the king of Egypt, from the Stream of Egypt to the Euphrates River.

Jehoiachin Son of Jehoiakim, King of Judah

⁸ Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he ruled for three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan from Jerusalem.

⁹ He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just like everything that his father had done. ¹⁰ At that time, the officers of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem and put the city under siege. ¹¹ Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city while his officers were besieging it.

¹² Then Jehoiachin king of Judah surrendered to the king of Babylon—he and his mother, his officials, his officers, and his eunuchs.^[j] In the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, he took Jehoiachin prisoner. ¹³ He brought out all the treasures of the House of the Lord and the treasures of the palace of the king. He cut up all the gold articles in the House of the Lord, which Solomon king of Israel had made, just as the Lord had said. ¹⁴ He exiled all Jerusalem and all the officers and all the warriors—ten thousand men went into exile—as well as all the craftsmen and metal workers. No one was left except the poorest people of the land. ¹⁵ He exiled Jehoiachin to Babylon. He also took the king’s mother, the king’s wives, his eunuchs, and the leading citizens of the land into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. ¹⁶ The king of Babylon also took into exile all the soldiers—seven thousand men—and the craftsmen and metal workers—a thousand men, all strong and trained for war.^{[k] 17} Then the king of Babylon made Jehoiachin’s uncle Mattaniah king in his place, but he changed his name to Zedekiah.

Zedekiah Son of Josiah, the Last King of Judah

¹⁸ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. ¹⁹ He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just like everything that Jehoiakim had done. ²⁰ Surely it was because of the Lord’s wrath that all this fell upon Jerusalem and Judah, until he cast them from his presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

The Final Siege of Jerusalem

25 In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came up against Jerusalem. He laid siege to it and built a rampart around it. ² The city was under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. ³ By the ninth day of the fourth month,^[l] famine gripped the city, and the people of the land had no bread.

⁴ Then the city wall was breached, and all the soldiers fled toward the Arabah through the gate that was between the two walls near the king’s garden, while the Chaldeans^[m] were surrounding the city. ⁵ But the Chaldean army pursued the king. They caught him in the Arabah near Jericho. His whole army was scattered away from him. ⁶ So they seized the king. They brought him to the king of Babylon in Riblah, and a sentence was pronounced on him. ⁷ They slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and then Zedekiah was blinded. They bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.

Jerusalem Destroyed and the People Deported

⁸ In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard,^[n] an officer of the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem. ⁹ He burned the Lord’s house and the king’s palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. He burned down every large building. ¹⁰ The whole Chaldean army, which was under the captain of the guard, tore down the walls around Jerusalem. ¹¹ Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, exiled the rest of the people who remained in the city along with those who had previously surrendered to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the crowds.^{[o] 12} But the captain of the guard left the poorest people of the land to tend the vineyards and farms.

¹³ The Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars which were in the House of the Lord and the carts and the bronze sea which was in the House of the Lord, and they took the bronze to Babylon. ¹⁴ They took the pots, shovels, snuffers,^[p] and bowls and all the bronze utensils with which they served. ¹⁵ The captain of the guard took the fire pans and the bowls—whatever was made of pure gold and pure silver. ¹⁶ The bronze from all these articles—the two pillars, the sea, and the carts which Solomon had made for the House of the Lord—could not be weighed. ¹⁷ The height of one pillar was twenty-seven feet, and the capital on it was bronze. The height of the capital was four and a half feet. Latticework and pomegranates went all around the capital. All this was bronze, and the other pillar with its latticework was the same.

¹⁸ The captain of the guard took Seriah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second-ranking priest and three doorkeepers. ¹⁹ From the city, he took an official who was in charge of the soldiers and five of the king’s close advisors, who were found in the city, as well as the secretary, the army commander who drafted the people of the land, and sixty men from the people of the land, who were found in the city. ²⁰ Nebuzaradan captain of the guard took them and brought them with him to the king of Babylon in Riblah. ²¹ The king of Babylon struck them down and killed them in Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile from her country.

The People Left in the Land

²² Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, over the people who remained in the land, because he had left some people behind. ²³ All the commanders of the army and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah, so they went to Gedaliah at Mizpah. They were Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seriah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, Ja’azaniah son of the Ma’akathite, and their men.

²⁴ Then Gedaliah swore an oath to them and to their men and said, “Don’t be afraid of the officials of the Chaldeans. Return to the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well for you.”

²⁵ But in the seventh month Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was of royal descent, came with ten men and struck down Gedaliah and killed him along with the men of Judah and the Chaldeans who were with him in Mizpah. ²⁶ Then all the people from the least to the greatest and the commanders of the army set out and went to Egypt because they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

Jehoiachin Released

²⁷ In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Evil Merodach^[q] king of Babylon, in the year he became king, released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison. ²⁸ He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat above the seats of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. ²⁹ So Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes, and he ate bread continually in the king’s presence all the days of his life. ³⁰ A regular allowance was given to him from the king, for his daily needs, all the days of his life.